In recent years there has been an increased demand for shopping carts constructed of plastic materials. Several attempts have been made to provide an all plastic cart, namely both a plastic basket and base (U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,394), although such attempts have for the most part been unsuccessful in view of the inability to provide a satisfactory base.
Accordingly, in an ongoing effort, several carts have been developed which employ a plastic basket mounted on a metal base. In some instances the base has been of conventional construction, and in other instances bases of rather radical design have been developed. Examples of carts employing a plastic basket mounted on a metal base are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,844,577, 3,999,774, 4,123,077 and 4,273,346.
While several carts employing plastic baskets mounted on a metal base have been commercialized and are presently being utilized, some of which are illustrated by the above-mentioned patents, nevertheless these known carts possess structural or functional features which make their use less than desirable. For example, in most of the carts employing a plastic basket mounted on a somewhat conventional metal base, it has been observed that the basket exhibits a structural weakness inasmuch as the center support on the base does not extend fully to the edge of the basket, and hence the side walls of the basket tend to bow and/or sag. Attempts to resolve this problem have taken many different directions, including providing the basket with significant reinforcement. These known attempts, however, have been less than satisfactory.
The mounting of the basket on the base has also presented a formatable problem in view of the difficulty in obtaining a secure and strong connection of the plastic basket to the metal base. Attempts have been made to provide special receptacles on the basket for telescopic relationship with the base, such as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,577. Another attempt has involved the use of a wire loop as a tensioning member for surrounding the upper edge of the basket and the uprights of the handle for attaching the basket to the base, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,774. While this latter arrangement is actively utilized, nevertheless it does involve the fabrication of a special wire loop mounted in surrounding relationship to the basket so as to securely mount the basket to the base. Many of these known arrangements have been rather expensive to fabricate and assemble, and this has hence detracted from the wide scale adoption and use of such carts.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved cart employing a plastic basket mounted on a metal base, which cart overcomes many of the above-mentioned disadvantages in that it permits the basket to be molded economically of a plastics material and then mounted on the base utilizing assembly steps which are simple to perform. Further, the base can be economically manufactured by use of conventional metal tubing, specifically steel tubing welded together, with the base being designed to provide desirable support for the basket both along the rear edge and centrally across the bottom wall up to the side walls, thereby preventing undesirable distortion of the basket.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved cart, as aforesaid, wherein the upright handle is fabricated from a single U-shaped tube and is provided with a crossbar welded between the lower free ends thereof, which crossbar functions as an attachment and a support for the lower rear edge of the basket. The crossbar additionally permits the handle to be releasably attached by removable fasteners to an underlying crosstube on the base to facilitate not only the assembly of the base and handle, but also the assembly and/or disassembly of the basket relative to the base and handle.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved cart, as aforesaid, wherein the plastic basket is molded as an integral one-piece structure having front, side and bottom walls, with the rear of the basket being open so as to permit use of a conventional baby seat formed from wire rod if desired. The separate handle of U-shaped structure is provided for attachment to the rear edges of the basket side walls, and the U-shaped handle has a separate crosstube welded between the lower free ends thereof, whereby the handle provides a substantial connecting structure and a very substantial rigidifying structure for the side walls of the basket. In addition, the base has a rear U-shaped support tube which projects upwardly for connection to the handle, which support tube has a crosstube which underlies the crosstube of the handle and is fixed thereto, as by removable fasteners. This double crosstube arrangement as provided under the lower rear edge of the basket not only provides support for the rear edge of the basket bottom wall, as by means of a telescopic support therewith, but also provides both the base and the overall cart with substantial strength and rigidity. This double crosstube arrangement as provided at the rear edge of the basket, and specifically the upper crosstube, also effectively functions as a stop for contacting the front support bar under the basket of a rearward cart when two such carts are nested together. This hence provides a secure stop for limiting the amount of nesting between carts to prevent the plastic baskets from being tightly wedged together, and avoids the necessity of having to provide a molded stop on the basket.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with cart structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.